Current energy consumption analysis focuses on daily values such as measured consumption values for a day, such as a sum, a maximum value, a minimum value, a mean value, or a median value. The minimum value is sometimes wrongly called a base load, and is better referred to as a constant 24-hour value, because it is a minimum that is also a constant part of daily energy consumption. The maximum value impacts the yearly costs of energy usage. The sum or mean (and less frequently the median) are used for calculations, such as in reports that aggregate usage of meters or main meters per day.
The minimum and maximum energy consumption values for a day provide information about extreme values, rather than the intervals of different levels of energy consumption throughout a given day. Similarly, the sum, mean and median values are aggregated values, and as such do not contain detailed information about intervals of different levels of energy consumption throughout a given day.